Monday, August 31, 2009

Few among us can claim living through a ripped-from-the-tabloids moment.

Jamie Bradley is one of those few, the survivor of startling "Man Attacked By Chimps" headlines that played out in Utah and across the nation a decade ago.

For proof, look no farther than Bradley's face, still scarred where a chimpanzee tore away part of his nose and ripped open his forehead.

Or to his left hand, missing one finger and mere halves remaining of two other fingers.

Bradley survived the injuries, married and became a father, and now looks back on the 1999 attack with a mixture of emotion, matter-of-factness -- and even levity.

"I always typed with two fingers anyway .<2009>.<2009>. it slowed down my typing at first," the former zoo worker quips during an interview at his Bountiful home.

Bradley, who was 28 when the three chimpanzees escaped from their enclosure at Utah's Hogle Zoo, even threw a party to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the 1999 incident -- a banparty.

Stuffed apes decorated the living room, and a Barrel of Monkeys game covered the top of a frosted cake. The invitations, too, were decorated with monkeys.

"A little humor, that's me," says Bradley.

There were tears and laughter as Bradley recounted his memories of the Feb. 27, 1999, event to friends and family packed shoulder-to-shoulder in his small apartment on the anniversary date. Some of those gathered added their own recollections of the incident.

Told that his friend was hospitalized from injuries inflicted by chimpanzees, Gordon Bray first thought it was a joke -- a lame excuse for why Bradley was late to meet him that day.

"It was one of those events that you don't ever imagine happening," says Bray, a Taylorsville resident who has known Bradley since third grade.

People such as Gini Valbuena and Judie's children, are the types of people that have nothing better to do with their time, then to harass, slander and "try" to defame others. They find the weak to team up with them, such as the very children that were extremely jealous of a mother that loved her chimps, only to hide their own abuse and insecurities. I find it odd that they start with these types of behaviors, after Judie leaves to live in the Congo. People like Gini Valbuena, have and always will be the worse abusers of all, regardless of the image she portrays. Anyone that has bought, sold and traded Chimps at the age of 5-7 years for 40 years, though says she has no chimps presently, we have to wonder "where did they all go?"

Sanctuaries, would not take these chimps in, for the mere fact that they would be feeding into her abusive ways. Ways of supporting herself, her medical bills, play dates, greeting cards, the entertainment business and renting them out to the circus, and buying more. All of these FACTS can be found on the internet in many places. Most of all feeding into the breeding, selling, trading and recycling of these chimps. Gini Valbuena, has never, nor will she ever, say where all of these chimps have gone. Why? She's hiding something. Perhaps the chimps that have been seen running wild in Florida were hers. With only, and I say "only" having 2 chimps per year x's 40 years, that's 80 chimps. There are, no way, 80 chimps that have been placed in sanctuaries. Where are they all? She says she wants to protect the people that have taken them, why? Why do they need protection? Protection from what, from who? Good Sanctuaries always state where the chimps came from.

A new video of the chimp re-cycler

Gini Valbuena is at it again!!!!! Why was she hiding her face at the beginning of the video? Why was she reluctant to answer where Eli came from? Why has the story changed from the original version that Eli was rescued? Now she says someone else bought Eli and gave Eli to them? Why would anyone buy a baby Chimp for 60,000.00 and then give it away? They wouldn't. God she really thinks people are stupid.Why was she drinking an alcoholic beverage when holding the chimp? Getting drunk are we? Now that's a responsible owner. NOT!

If I were her and thank GOD I'm NOT, I would bury my face in the dirt, and never show it again. Just look at her, she's so proud, proud to have been the reason why this poor baby chimp doesn't have a mother. Proud that the mother was shot with a tranquilizer gun after carrying and giving birth to "HER" baby, not Gini Valbuenas baby, so they could rip that baby away from her. Only a monster could do such a thing. I suppose she has so many issues within herself, that owning a baby chimp makes her feel special. She's special alright.LinkSource and Finale

The Rangers have filmed another so-called “interaction” between the silverbacks Humba and Kabirizi. In the video you can see the two gorilla families mixed together (almost 50 mountain gorillas in total) watching the silverbacks strutting their stuff and charging at each other.

The most heated moment comes when Humba spots a young male from the other group on the wrong side of the line- as Humba heads towards him Kabirizi comes charging in to the rescue backed by his blackback side-kicks.

Who knew we were killing sweet baby orangutans by buying food and soap made with palm oil?

The folks behind Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics apparently did, and on Wednesday the international chain staged an afternoon "protest" at 83 of its stores in the United States and Canada to raise awareness -- and perhaps sell some of the company's palm-oil-free soap.

Orangutan experts say palm oil plantations, along with deforestation and the logging industry, are encroaching on the apes' natural habitat, further endangering the already-vulnerable species.

They may be the first great ape to go extinct," said Danielle Fogarty, senior keeper in the primate department at the Brookfield Zoo.

As part of the promotion, customers were encouraged to soak their hands in green, water-based paint, then press their palms against the storefront window. The combined green palm prints were meant to symbolize palm tree leaves.

The chimps, created by Maryland sculptor Bart Walter, will be placed around the boulders to create an outdoor exhibit space that reflects, to some degree, a chimp's natural habitat, said landscape architect Matt Stovall of Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon.

"We're taking what was a static space and adding life and motion, creating a sense of excitement," Mr. Stovall said. "The chimps will be greeting people as they enter the zoo."

Each figure represents a member of the chimpanzee social group, from the alpha male to the mothers and their young.

More monkeys are coming to the Chattanooga Zoo, but they won't jump around, swing or screech.

They'll just stand there.

The Troupe, an exhibit of six life-sized bronze chimpanzees and Chattanooga's first Art in Public Spaces sculpture, will be placed at the zoo entrance in Warner Park.

The unveiling, sponsored by the Hunter Museum of American Art and funded through a $1.8 million grant from the Benwood Foundation, is set for Sept. 25.

Work on the permanent exhibit began last week with the placement of 18 natural sandstone boulders from the Cumberland Plateau, each weighing several tons.

Mr. Walter said he spent six days in Uganda following chimpanzees through the Kibale Forest so his sculptures accurately would depict the movement of chimps in the wild.

"I'm excited to do this, not only because I admire Hunter Museum of American Art, but I like the fact that they will be installed in a different way -- up on large rocks from a quarry in Tennessee," he said.

The exhibit is the first in a series of four planned Art in Public Spaces displays to be erected in city parks this year. The next will be placed in Miller Plaza in late September, and two more will be installed at Renaissance Park by early winter, according to Hunter Museum spokeswoman Robin Derryberry.

"The locations for the sculptures were voted on by the public," she said. "I think the sculptures add to the quality and fabric of the community. Everyone is finding out that Chattanooga is a great place to do business, and they're also finding out this is a great place to live."

Imagine that you are a teacher of Roman history and the Latin language, anxious to impart your enthusiasm for the ancient world — for the elegiacs of Ovid and the odes of Horace, the sinewy economy of Latin grammar as exhibited in the oratory of Cicero, the strategic niceties of the Punic Wars, the generalship of Julius Caesar and the voluptuous excesses of the later emperors. That’s a big undertaking and it takes time, concentration, dedication. Yet you find your precious time continually preyed upon, and your class’s attention distracted, by a baying pack of ignoramuses (as a Latin scholar you would know better than to say ignorami) who, with strong political and especially financial support, scurry about tirelessly attempting to persuade your unfortunate pupils that the Romans never existed. There never was a Roman Empire. The entire world came into existence only just beyond living memory. Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan, Romansh: all these languages and their constituent dialects sprang spontaneously and separately into being, and owe nothing to any predecessor such as Latin.

Instead of devoting your full attention to the noble vocation of classical scholar and teacher, you are forced to divert your time and energy to a rearguard defence of the proposition that the Romans existed at all: a defence against an exhibition of ignorant prejudice that would make you weep if you weren’t too busy fighting it.........

This presentation focuses on the probability of Evolution occurring. You will learn about your credibility factor. How much is a trillion dollars? You’ll learn about the amazing cell and see the odds of forming a protein. Is chance behind the incredible human body or is it God’s amazing design?

Presented at 12:00 on Tuesday, September 1, this presentation is part of the Museum’s Answers Speaker Series and is free with Museum admission or membership. Seating is first come first served, so you’ll want to arrive early to make sure you can hear this engaging presentation. Over the years, Mike has become much in demand as a creation speaker, including as an adjunct lecturer with the Institute for Creation Research. As a former world-class athlete in the multi-event decathlon, and a former Marine, it’s not surprising that Mike is also versatile in his “creation evangelism” efforts. To learn more about Mike Riddle please click here.

T-shirts worn by the Smith-Cotton High School band have evolved into an issue among parents.

The shirts, which were designed to promote the band’s fall program, are light gray and feature an image of a monkey progressing through stages and eventually emerging as a man. Each figure holds a brass instrument. Several instruments decorate the background, and the words “Smith-Cotton High School Tiger Pride Marching Band” and “Brass Evolutions 2009” are emblazoned above and below the image.

Assistant band director Brian Kloppenburg said the shirts were designed by him, band director Jordan Summers and Main Street Logo. Kloppenburg said the shirts were intended to portray how brass instruments have evolved in music from the 1960s to modern day. Summers said they chose the evolution of man because it was “recognizable.”

The band debuted the T-shirts when it marched in the Missouri State Fair parade. Summers said he was surprised when he received a direct complaint after the parade.

Although the shirts don’t directly violate the district’s dress code, Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt said complaints by parents made him take action.

“I made the decision to have the band members turn the shirts in after several concerned parents brought the shirts to my attention,” Pollitt said.

Pollitt said the district was required by law to remain neutral on religion.

“If the shirts had said ‘Brass Resurrections’ and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,” he said.

Band parent Sherry Melby, who is a teacher in the district, stands behind Pollitt’s decision. Melby said she associated the image on the T-shirt with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

“I was disappointed with the image on the shirt,” Melby said. “I don’t think evolution should be associated with our school.”

Parent Alena Hoeffling said she was infuriated with the administration’s decision to pull the attire.

“Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?” she said.

Hoeffling said she was a scientific person and a practicing Catholic and enjoyed the “play on words.”

Hoeffling said she enrolled her children in public school so they could have choices.

“If I wanted my children to be sheltered, I would have enrolled them in private school,” she said.

On Friday afternoon after practice, band members piled the shirts on a table. Although most were apathetic about the shirts, others felt the drama was unwarranted.

“It’s not like we are saying God is bad,” sophomore band member Denyel Luke said. “We aren’t promoting evolution.”

High School junior Adam Tilley said he understood why the shirts were repossessed.

“I can see where the parents are coming from,” he said. “Evolution has always been controversial.” The 17-year-old trombone player said his parents didn’t care about the shirt because it was the name of the band’s show.

Summers said a new T-shirt was in the design stages, but he declined to comment on the image.

“It has to be approved first,” he said.

Pollitt said the district would now have to absorb the cost of the T-shirts — $700 — that would have been paid for by the band parents. Pollitt said an anonymous donor had originally planned to pay half the cost, but declined after the evolution image was placed on the shirts. However, the donor does plan to fund half the price of the new T-shirts.

We presume that “civilization” originated in Mesopotamia, Iraq to be specific, but no one can adequately explain how it virtually blossomed out of nothing.

“The 12th Planet”, is the first book in Sitchin's “Earth Chronicles Series ”. In it Sitchin reveals an alternative theory of the origins of earth, humanity, and human history, as it was known and taught by the most ancient culture of mankind, the Sumerians.

According to ancient Sumerians, there were 12 celestial bodies counting the Sun and Moon. This 12th planet is said to have a huge enlongated 3600 year orbit around the Sun.

In this book Sitchin effectively ties Judeo-Christian beliefs and the Bible into the story he unfolds, by revealing that the early stories in the Old Testament were based largely on older manuscripts from Sumeria.

While some view this work as fictional or completely delusional, others believe it has answered many of their questions.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation that would prohibit interstate and foreign commerce in nonhuman primates (chimpanzees, monkeys, lemurs and others) for the pet trade. The “Captive Primate Safety Act” passed with a vote of 323-95*.

Last week’s horrible incident in Connecticut in which a chimpanzee was shot and killed after he mauled a friend of his owner was more evidence that these animals should not be pets.

This week in a letter to the editor, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto wrote about the danger of exotic pets, “Florida banned possession of primates as pets in 1980. Florida authorities recognized the need for the prohibition after a series of attacks here during the 1970s. However, there are still many exotic pets in this state…. people across the country should think twice about whether they want to share space with a chimpanzee or other animal that is quite capable of injuring or killing a human being.”

You Can HelpThe “Captive Primate Safety Act” (S. 462) has now been introduced in the U.S. Senate. Please contact Florida’s U.S. Senators and urge them to support this common-sense legislation.

*The following Florida U.S. Representatives were in the minority who voted against the bill: Ginny Brown-Waite, Ander Crenshaw, Connie Mack, Jeff Miller, Bill Posey, Adam Putnam. If you live in their district, please let them know you are disappointed with their vote.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

The recent chimpanzee attack in Stamford, Conn., was a tragedy for the woman who was horribly mauled. It was also a reminder that primates should not keep other primates as pets. The obvious reason is the danger involved. No matter how tame they may sometimes appear, chimpanzees are vastly stronger than most people realize. And no matter how socialized a chimpanzee seems, it is still in exile from its kind, its way of being.

Travis, the 200-pound chimp in Stamford who was shot and killed by police, was marginally legal. Had his owner registered him — as required in Connecticut for primates over 50 pounds — he would have been fully legal. But Travis had been exempted, largely for good behavior.

At present, there may be as many as 15,000 primate pets in the United States. Only 20 states prohibit keeping them as pets, and there is no federal law against it. But there may soon be a law that makes it much harder to obtain them.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Captive Primate Safety Act, which would ban the interstate transport of primates as pets. The Senate should quickly follow. The legislation poses no risk to federally licensed facilities, such as zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.

Unfortunately, chimpanzees are only a small part of the global exotic pet trade, which is fueled by greed, curiosity and a misplaced, often wildly sentimental interest in animals. It’s only natural to feel empathy for a chimp that has been orphaned, one way or another, into the human world. But chimps belong with other chimps — in proper wildlife sanctuaries — and not living as if they were nearly human among humans.

Scientists who torture labs animals are as guilty as Michael Vick. Even more so since they inflict worse pain on the lab animals than Vick did on the dogs. At all of America’s big proud research universities, grants of millions of dollars from the NSF (National Science Foundation) and NIH (National Institute of Health) and similar learned bodies are given to men and women who perform worthless, painful, gratuitous experiments on animals. They sew the eyelids of monkeys together and bolt instruments into their brains and insert electrodes into their eyeballs.

An increase in wildlife conservation efforts is becoming necessary in Africa, where many animals are now on the list of endangered species. Here are 5 animals that need to be incorporated into conservation projects.

Animal conservation work is growing in popularity, with many people taking adult gap years where they work with animals in Africa. It is a fulfilling way to give something back to nature, and you will take the experiences you had on your gap year for adults with you forever. Africa, the continent known for its abundant wildlife, now has many of its animals on the list of endangered species. It is essential that conservationists continue with the work that they are doing, and that others get involved too. Here are some African animals that can be found on Africa’s endangered list.

#1 Chimpanzee

On the African continent, the chimpanzee can be found in grasslands, rainforests and open woodlands. But human expansion is depleting these natural environments, and the chimpanzees’ habitat is being demininished. For some time now, wildlife conservation projects have focused on chimpanzees, but more animal conservation work is needed to manage the dwindling chimpanzee population.

#2 African Wild Dog

The African wild dog is a medium sized canine which traditionally lives in packs of 15 and preys on smaller grazers such as impala. The African wild dog can be found in the savanna woodlands of Sub Saharan Africa, but its numbers are dwindling due to it being shot by farmers, and it now has a place on the endangered species list. Conservation work is necessary to restore original population numbers, and the animal is now a protected species.

#3 Mountain Zebra

The mountain zebra can be found in the mountainous regions of South Africa; a beautiful striped, herbivorous animal, eating mostly grass, leaves, shrubs and bark. One of its sub species, the Cape mountain zebra, has a population of only 600. The numbers of these animals are dwindling due to hunting and the effects of drought. Conservation projects have been put into place in protected areas, to try and manage this dwindling population.

#4 Leopard

The leopard can be found in many different places across the world, and in Africa, it can be found all across the Sub Saharan regions, and west of the Kalahari Desert. It has been known to prey on farmers’ livestock, and the resultant hunting has begun to pose a threat. Other factors placing this animals on the endangered list are loss of habitat and loss of prey populations. Animal conservation workers have begun putting conservation projects in place, and the leopard population is being managed with a fair amount of success.

#5 Dama Gazelle

This elegant animal can be found in Saharan Africa, where it usually either lives in solitude or in a small group. It primarily feeds on shrubs, acacias and desert dates. Sadly, dama gazelle numbers have dropped by about 80 in the last decade, making them a prime subject of conservation projects. The rapid decrease in population numbers is due to hunting, habitat destruction and drought. It is imperative for animal conservation workers to implement projects to prevent these animals from becoming extinct.

In 2000, Carole Noon sued the Air Force. She won when her case was settled out of court in 2001.

Noon's legacy is tied to her love of fairness and sense of what is right for those "people" who have served the needs of humankind - chimpanzees.

In 1997, Noon founded Save the Chimps to find a solution for animals that have been experimented with, left in facilities with a bare minimum of care and to die.

On Saturday, May 2, 2009, Noon died following a short battle with pancreatic cancer.

Her dream continues: moving all the chimps from the former Coulston Foundation facility in Alamogordo to the series of islands in Florida, which make up the largest sanctuary for chimpanzees that were once exploited by laboratories, entertainment and the pet trade.

Jen Feuerstein has been appointed sanctuary director by the Save the Chimps board and continues the work Noon began.

Feuerstein first came to Alamogordo to volunteer for Save the Chimps shortly after Noon took possession. In February 2003, Feuerstein became the director of operations of the New Mexico facility and, since Noon died, now directs both locations.

The organization is still in the process of moving the chimps in Alamogordo to the Florida sanctuary, Feuerstein said. When the job is done, 266 chimps will have migrated from New Mexico to Florida, including the original 21 chimps Noon was given in 2001 from the Air Force.

During Noon's negotiating with the Air Force, she had established a relationship with Dr. Fred Coulston and the Coulston Foundation, a biomedical research facility to which the Air Force had given almost 300 of it's chimps.

When Coulston's facility became financially troubled and was unable to maintain itself, Coulston contacted Noon to see if she wanted to rescue the animals housed there.

On Sept. 16, 2002, the entire Alamogordo facility was transferred toNoon's care. These "people" were kept in concrete cells, some for 40 years or more. They had no access to touch or see other chimps. They could only hear one another.

Noon immediately began to improve the chimps lives, Feuerstein said. The first improvement was in their diet.

"They received three meals of fresh fruits and veggies (per day)," Feuerstein said. "We put in skylights, gave them toys and blankets and cleaned their cages every day."

Then Save the Chimps added extensions to the cages and cut doors through the six inches of concrete separating the animals "so the chimps in (Building) 300 could see and touch each other for the first time," she said.

"We still have 123 chimps here," Feuerstein said. "We are moving about 30 more this year and are expecting to be moved out by 2011."

Before being set loose on the individual islands prepared for them, the chimps have to be socialized, she said. In New Mexico, they are working with the animals to form family groups.

One of Feuerstein's favorite memories of her work with Noon is the day the first big group of chimps set off from Alamogordo to Florida.

"I rode on the road with the chimps," she said. "It was really meaningful to start the process with her (Noon). It was the initiation of her dream to get them to Florida."

Feuerstein said Noon loved watching the chimps take their first steps onto the island that was to become their home.

"She watched them touch the grass for the first time," Feuerstein said. "She loved those moments. It gave her a big thrill."

Funding for Save the Chimps comes from donations from the public, Feuerstein said. The Arcus group in Kalamazoo, Mich., also supports the cause.

"We need a large base of support," she said. "Save the Chimps is not just based on hope, we have to fund-raise."

Save the Chimps operations and maintenance cost $4 million a year.

There are 30 staff members still in New Mexico and 45 working at the Florida sanctuary. Noon's dedication inspired the people who work for the organization.

"Carole had an infectious love for chimps," Feuerstein said. "She would light up when she was around the chimps. The staff here love these chimps as much. They are 100 percent devoted to (the chimps)."

Alamogordo staff member Kathy Gardner is one of the inspired. When she started the job, she and several others were called to meet Noon in the kitchen.

"I thought I was in trouble," Gardner said. "But we drove to the back of a building and she let the babies (chimps) out (into an enclosure)."

Gardner had the rare chance to actually go in and play with the little chimps. Something that is rarely allowed and she will remember fondly all her life. The experience really made her feel like part of the team.

"I don't think I could ask for a better boss," she said of Noon. "She was always there for the employees, who always come first ... except for the chimps, of course."

The Florida sanctuary is not open to the public, Feuerstein said, because Noon felt the chimps have had enough taken of them. But Noon also felt education was important so, when the project of moving the chimps is complete, Save the Chimps will build an education center at Fort Pierce, Fla. The organization will also focus on other chimps who need help.

"There are a lot more who need to be rescued," she said.

There are still 1,100 chimps in laboratories in the United States and 225 in private ownership, Feuerstein said.

"Carole felt we are all interconnected," Feuerstein said. "We are all part of this planet. These are our closest non-human relatives. If we can's have compassion for them, how can we have compassion for anyone?"

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Uganda has set its eyes to cash in on virtual gorilla tracking.

And come September 26, 2009, the virtual network to track the gorillas will be launched in Kampala and will be witnessed by world leaders and local and international superstars.

This was revealed by Ms. Eunice Mahoro, the Director of Tourism Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in an interview with East African Business Week.

Mahoro explained virtual gorilla tracking will involve stationing of cameras within Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and trackers will only be able to track gorillas with the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.

“All this will be possible by one logging on website www.friendagorilla.org which will work in the same way as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Once you befriend a gorilla or gorillas, you will be interacting with your gorilla friend on a weekly basis and you will get updates on the movement of your gorilla friend(s) in Bwindi. And all you do is paying just one dollar or an equivalent in Uganda shillings to any of the mobile telephone networks and you will get yourself a gorilla friend,” Mahoro said.

She said once one ‘buys’ or rather befriends a gorilla; one becomes able to follow births, new relationships and genealogy of your friend, all life long.

“But you do not have to be on the social network site, you can track your gorilla friend on www.friendagorilla.org site by going to the web page Geotrack,” Mahoro said.

She explained that come September 24, the Nshongi gorilla family in Kisoro will be officially launched by tracking this biggest family of gorillas with 34 individual members which has been habituated for tracking recently.

“This is the year of the gorilla and we want to get everyone on board. We shall have many campaigns starting August 31 with gorilla road shows; culminating in a fundraising corporate gala at Kampala Serena Hotel. With the website connection and the gala, we hope to raise about US$2 billion (US$1 million),” Mahoro said. She explained that tourism last year contributed $600m and the biggest chunk came from gorilla tracking and currently, the tourism sector contributes 4% of the country’s GDP.

Lilian Nsubuga, the Communication and Public Relations Manager UWA, said the money raised will mostly be used for constructing fully operational clinics around the national park and one project that will be initiated by the community.

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Uganda has set its eyes to cash in on virtual gorilla tracking.

And come September 26, 2009, the virtual network to track the gorillas will be launched in Kampala and will be witnessed by world leaders and local and international superstars.

This was revealed by Ms. Eunice Mahoro, the Director of Tourism Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in an interview with East African Business Week.

Mahoro explained virtual gorilla tracking will involve stationing of cameras within Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and trackers will only be able to track gorillas with the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.

“All this will be possible by one logging on website www.friendagorilla.org which will work in the same way as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Once you befriend a gorilla or gorillas, you will be interacting with your gorilla friend on a weekly basis and you will get updates on the movement of your gorilla friend(s) in Bwindi. And all you do is paying just one dollar or an equivalent in Uganda shillings to any of the mobile telephone networks and you will get yourself a gorilla friend,” Mahoro said.

She said once one ‘buys’ or rather befriends a gorilla; one becomes able to follow births, new relationships and genealogy of your friend, all life long.

“But you do not have to be on the social network site, you can track your gorilla friend on www.friendagorilla.org site by going to the web page Geotrack,” Mahoro said.

She explained that come September 24, the Nshongi gorilla family in Kisoro will be officially launched by tracking this biggest family of gorillas with 34 individual members which has been habituated for tracking recently.

“This is the year of the gorilla and we want to get everyone on board. We shall have many campaigns starting August 31 with gorilla road shows; culminating in a fundraising corporate gala at Kampala Serena Hotel. With the website connection and the gala, we hope to raise about US$2 billion (US$1 million),” Mahoro said. She explained that tourism last year contributed $600m and the biggest chunk came from gorilla tracking and currently, the tourism sector contributes 4% of the country’s GDP.

Lilian Nsubuga, the Communication and Public Relations Manager UWA, said the money raised will mostly be used for constructing fully operational clinics around the national park and one project that will be initiated by the community.

SHAME ON YOU for promoting Amazing Animal Actors ("Talking with the animals," June 28).

These chimpanzee babies belong with their mothers, not with a chimp pimp renting them for $200 an hour. Chimpanzees have long childhoods, like us; in the wild they are not weaned until about 5 years old and stay near mother until about 9.

Chimpanzees are not furry little humans, and must not be treated like animated toys for human amusement. What will really happen to these youngsters when they are no longer cute and cuddly? Raised away from chimpanzee society, they have not learned to act like chimpanzees, and no reputable zoo will take such misfits.

Sadly, when chimpanzee children have grown too big and strong to be easily controlled, they are typically sold into biomedical research or to ramshackle roadside zoos, or are forced to breed a new generation of performers. Chimpanzees can live to be 60 years old, but entertainers are usually discarded before they reach 8.

Because chimpanzees are just like us in all the ways that matter, it is wrong to use them for amusement. Shame on your newspaper for giving free advertising to a chimp pimp.

On behalf of the Chimpanzee Collaboratory, I would like to point out that your July 5 article on Gini Valbuena's "pay to play" chimpanzee program in Clearwater omitted a few important details.

We are a group of scientists, public policy experts and attorneys that includes world-renowned primatologist and advocate Jane Goodall. We are dedicated to improving the lives of chimpanzees and other great apes. Programs such as Valbuena's are exactly what we are trying to protect chimpanzees and other great apes from.

Captive chimpanzees in this type of situation are usually taken from their mothers at infancy and are denied the opportunity to grow up in a normal chimpanzee family. Later in life, they become too strong for a "hands-on" approach by even the most caring human guardian.

Chimpanzees are extremely social beings, but they become so humanized when raised in this manner that, once placed in a sanctuary with other chimpanzees, they do not know how to interact and they suffer horribly from social isolation. Those are the lucky ones. More often than not, chimpanzees used in entertainment end up being sold to biomedical laboratories or roadside zoos, where they may remain for decades.

Readers who wish to learn about the true nature of chimpanzees and their plight can contact the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care in Boynton Beach (www.savethechimps.org). This sanctuary, run by Chimpanzee Collaboratory member Dr. Carole Noon, is home to chimpanzees who previously lived in an Air Force laboratory. She also provides sanctuary for chimpanzees who were orphaned by their owners, who initially kept them as pets but were no longer able to take care of them.

Noon provides true sanctuary for these individuals and allows them to be who they are - chimpanzees, not props for our entertainment.

OLKATA: A day after seven of the eight common marmosets stolen from Alipore zoo were rescued from a house in Chhattisgarh's Durg, Kolkata Police

on Saturday said they were expecting the monkeys to arrive in Kolkata by Monday. The city police also arrested a man called Sujoy Das alias Bubai from Dum Dum on suspicion of being involved in the racket.

Das is said to be an aide of Raj Saikia, who was arrested in Chhattisgarh on Friday in connection with the theft case. The city cops are preparing to bring Saikia to the city on transit remand for interrogation.

"One team left for Chhattisgarh by flight at 5.30 am while another went by train. We are expecting the marmosets to be brought back to Kolkata by Monday. We are interrogating several persons here and have also found some local links, which we are probing," said Jawed Shamim, joint commissioner of police (headquarters).

Shamim said Chhattisgarh Police got information that one person was trying to sell some monkeys. Acting on this tip-off, they nabbed Saikia for keeping the marmosets. Police also said Saikia, a native of Assam, was an animal thief. He was arrested in Pune in 2006 for allegedly having a role in the theft of macaws. He also lived in Mumbai for some time and was currently staying in Chhattisgarh.

Police are trying to find out how exactly the marmosets was stolen. "We will find out whether Raj came to Kolkata to steal the marmosets or got delivery of the marmosets from his local contacts here. The manner in which the marmosets were kept in the Durg house for so many days and the way the gang was still searching for prospective buyers suggested that it was probably not a very well-organized racket," Shamim said.

The monkey thieves did not know how much the marmosets could fetch in the market, police said. "Each of them has a price tag of $1,700 (Rs 85,000), but the accused were demanding only Rs 35 lakh for the entire bunch of seven," Shamim said.

Police also suspect that the same group had made a similar attempt at Alipore zoo in March. "Whether the local sources have links with the zoo is a matter of investigation," he added.

The city cops are trying to find out how frequently Saikia contacted his sources in Kolkata. They also feel that the racket may have spread to Bangladesh besides having an inter-state connection. "It could be possible that he (Saikia) developed his contacts while he was in jail previously. We are exploring all angles," a police officer said.

The marmosets were stolen from Alipore zoo on August 9. The then zoo director was later suspended.

Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape by Frans de Waal is the best photograph and information book on the Bonobo Chimpanzees that i have seen so far. Frans de Waal is my favorite author (besides Jane Goodall of course) covering the chimpanzees and bonobos.

For those of you who are not that familiar with the wonderful Bonobos, i would really like to recommend this book. This is a large book with almost every page having full color photos. Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape does a great job of introducing the bonobos and comparing them to chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas. Also, they take a look at early humans, most notably “Lucy” the Australopithecus, and you can see a few similarities between the bonobos and Lucy.

There is a fascinating Interview with Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, who worked with the most famous Bonobo, Kanzi. In fact, there are many Kanzi references in this book, so if you are a fan of the great language learning ape, you should check this book out.

Many photos show the bonobos walking upright, something that is very easy for them to do. This allows the bonobos to move about using only their legs, leaving their hands free to carry food and other things like bonobo made tools.

The Forgotten Ape tells of the history of the Bonobos. In the 1920’s people believed that no apes lived south of the Zaire River, however in 1927 the Tervuren Museum in Belgium received a bonobo skull from a town south of the Zaire which lead to the discovery of the great apes 2 years later.

Sex is the glue of Bonobo Society. Many people call the bonobos the “make love not war” chimpanzee because of their frequent use of sex. The bonobos are the ultimate love makers in the animal kingdom (besides humans of course) because they will copulate in many different positions, including face to face. The orangutans are also very sexy, i have witnessed Orangutans mating for minutes on end in a strange position, male on his back and female sitting on top with her back towards the male. What made this experience even stranger is the fact that the male was staring at myself the whole time.

Who should buy this book? If you are a lover of the great apes, particularly the chimpanzees and bonobos, this book is a must have. If you are interested in learning about our early human relatives, the bonobos are probably the closest things to a living relative. With full color photos and jam packed with amazing information, this is the ultimate bonobo book!

For further reading, please check out all of the animal books that i have reviewed. Also please feel free to check out some of my animal pictures that i have taken!

Is depression an evolutionary adaptation? Part 1.

I’ve been a critic of evolutionary psychology over the years — perhaps too much of a critic, since there is some good stuff being done in that field. But I won’t pull my punches with one of its subdisciplines: evolutionary psychiatry. Exponents of evo-psychiatry spend their time ruminating about how “mental disorders” in humans might really be adaptations that have evolved either recently or, more often, in our savanna-dwelling ancestors. (Here I mean “adaptation” in the evolutionary sense: a mental disorder is a module of neurons selected as a unit because the behavior it produces causes its carriers to leave more genes than do individuals lacking the “disorder”.)

The reason why I’ve often come down on evolutionary psychology — and evolutionary psychiatry — is that often its practitioners don’t just idly speculate about the evolutionary origin of our behavior. Many of their “speculations” have real world consequences and lead to prescriptions about how we should change society.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the latest offering of evo-psychiatry, a pair of papers by Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. — a long one in Psychological Reviewand a précis in Scientific American. In these articles, Andrews and Thomson float the idea that both clinical and subclinical depression are not pathologies, but adaptive traits built into our ancestors by natural selection. Why? Because, they say, depression enables people who have encountered difficult life circumstances a way to kick back, engage in deep and long-lasting rumination, and analytically solve those thorny problems. They call this the “analytical rumination hypothesis” (henceforth ARH) for depression.

Well, ideas like this have been floated before. What is new is the authors’ prescription that because depressive rumination is good, and because drugs that alleviate depression also alleviate the adaptive rumination, the best way to treat depression is not through drugs but through psychotherapy that helps the patient solve problems. Drugs only make things worse — they may alleviate the symptoms of depression, but they don’t alleviate the cause (life problems).

I’m not taking either a pro- or anti-drug stand here. What I am saying is that it seems unwise, especially in light of the insubstantial evidence that Andrews and Thomson offer for their evolutionary theory, to tell doctors to back off from a therapy that seems to help people. And if you read the Psychological Review paper with a critical eye, you’ll find that it’s a tissue of tissue — paper thin evidence that in some cases is almost laughable. But such are the data of evolutionary psychiatry. Let’s look at those data. Today I’ll set out the reasons why Andrews and Thomson see depression as an adaptation, and discuss what, exactly, is so adaptive about it. In tomorrow’s installment I’ll discuss the experimental support — or lack thereof — for their assertions.

WHY MIGHT DEPRESSION BE CONSIDERED AN ADAPTATION?The authors give several reasons:

It is common. The Scientific American paper says “between 30 to 50 percent of people have met current psychiatric diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder sometime in their lives. But the brain plays crucial roles in promoting survival and reproduction, so the pressures of evolution should have left our brains resistant to such high rates of malfunction. Mental disorders should generally be rare — why isn’t depression?”

There appears to be some discrepancy about statistics here, for in the Psychological Review paper the authors note that only 16.6% of Americans meet the criteria for MDD (46.4% are said to have met criteria for “at least one mental disorder”), while a New Zealand study gives 37% and another American study gives 7% for “major depression.” It’s not clear how they get 30-50% for depression alone. Leaving that aside, though, I note that the commonness of a malady says nothing about whether that “malady” is really an adaptation. The frequency of appendicitis is roughly 7%. Does that make it an adaptation? A huge proportion of males experience enlarged prostate glands beginning at about age 40 (an age at which men are still fertile). Are enlarged prostate glands an adaptation? Probably not — they’re almost certainly a pathology. So why can’t depression be a pathology?

The authors also note, and I’ve read this elsewhere, that depression is found in all societies, including those supposedly resembling the hunter-gatherer societies of our ancestors (the authors, however, give no statistics about depression in tribes like the !Kung!). This shows that depression cannot be completely an artifact of living in modern societies, but it doesn’t say whether it could be exacerbated by modern societies.

The authors assert that the “high prevalence estimates” of depressive disorders, and their worldwide presence “suggest[s] that much of what is currently classified as depressive disorder represents normal psychological functioning.” This suggests nothing of the sort, any more than the frequency and ubiquity of toothaches suggests that these are part of normal dental functioning. The only way around this grotesque conclusion is the semantic tactic that anything that occurs in more than 15% of people is “normal” by definition.

There is a structure whose absence reduces depression. As the Scientific American article notes, “One reason to suspect that depression is an adaptation, not a malfunction, comes from research into a molecular in the brain known as the 5HT1A receptor. The 5HT1A receptor binds to serotonin [5HT, or 5-hydroxytryptamine], another brain molecule that is highly implicated in depression and is the target of most current antidepressant medications. Rodents lacking this receptor show fewer depressive symptoms in response to stress, which suggests that it is somehow involved in promoting depression.”

Well, it’s questionable whether depression is rodents is the same thing as depression in humans, and the authors give no proof. But setting that aside, the fact that the absence of a structure alleviates a condition certainly does not mean that the structure evolved to further or “promote” that condition. Under that logic we could say that appendicitis is an adaptation because removal of the appendix removes the possibility of appendicitis.

Depression involves a group of “coordinated” symptoms. These symptoms include “anhedonia,” the inability to experience pleasure, changes in “psychomotor” systems (e.g., desire for isolation, lethargy, loss of appetite), and increase of serotonin production* (this is a postulate; the authors have not demonstrated this, nor have they distinguished between increased serotonin as a cause of depression or merely a consequence of it), an increase that supposedly enables the parts of the brain engaged in analytical thinking to keep that up.

The authors claim that “such coordination makes it very unlikely that depressive rumination is a by-product of biological processes or is attributable to chance. Just as the highly structured and complex design of the vertebrate eye must have been constructed by selection and not by chance, it is difficult to see how chance biological processes could have generated such coordination. It suggests that depression evolved by natural selection, probably because depression helped people analyze and solve the problems about which they were ruminating.”

Do I really need to debunk this logic? It’s not a kind of logic that I’m familiar with as an evolutionist. Any disease or malady, psychological or otherwise, involves a coordinated group of symptoms. Schizophrenia also involves a coordinated group of symptoms that often includes catatonia, hearing voices, disordered thinking, and changes in neurotransmitter quantity. Does that make it an adaptation? I haven’t seen anybody claim that, despite the fact that schizophrenia is also found in nearly all cultures.

So much for the first principles suggesting depression is an adaptation. In tomorrow’s installment we’ll look at the authors’ experimental evidence that depression really does help people ruminate and solve their problems. Against that, however, must be set the maladaptive consequences of depression. I don’t know the statistics about the relative numbers of offspring produced by people who are depressive versus non-depressive (I doubt that those data exist, and the authors don’t cite any), but we do know that there is one hugely maladaptive consequence of depression: suicide. Estimates of the number of clinical depressives who kill themselves range from 2% -9% (the commonly cited figure of 15% is certainly too high). This is a huge fitness cost, especially since depression often strikes those of reproductive age. It’s telling that in the entire 34-page article by Andrews and Thomson, the word “suicide” is not mentioned once. One way around having to balance this deficit is to claim that suicide was not an option when depression evolved in our savanna-dwelling ancestors. But we don’t know that, and of course severe depression in hunter-gatherers may have some reproductive/survival costs that are even greater than those accrued in modern societies.

And, at any rate, a current cost-benefit analysis may be irrelevant: as the authors note, “A design analysis does not require depressive rumination to be currently adaptive because modern and evolutionary environments may differ in important ways.” That means that if depression reduces reproductive output in modern societies, the authors can still claim it was an evolved adaptation. That makes their hypothesis very difficult to test, as is true of any evolutionary-psychology theory that rests on fitness calculations that no longer obtain.

WHAT IS THE ADAPTIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEPRESSION? I briefly sketched the basics of the authors’ “analytical rumination hypothesis” (ARH), but I want to describe it in a bit more detail. The authors claim that there are two causes precipitating depression: “avoidable stressors” (the authors don’t describe what these are, but I presume they’re something like interpersonal conflicts at work), and “complex social problems” (the authors use as an example the infidelity of a mate, which puts you in the dilemma of whether to abandon that mate or stick with him/her and raise the kids). In either case, depression is an adaptive response because solving these problems require complicated and difficult analytical thinking. By putting yourself into isolation and forcing your brain into rumination, depression supposedly helps you attack the precipitating problem. The anhedonia, lethargy, and lack of sociality further make you concentrate on your problem and avoid distraction. Even the lack of appetite, say the authors, keeps your mind working instead of your mouth chewing! The supposedly high levels of serotonin keep that analytical brain grinding away. In the end, the “shutdown” of depression helps you solve your problem — or at least address it more effectively than those who don’t go through depression. In that way, your reproductive output is higher than that of nondepressives.

Note that the hypothesis does not say that everyone should be depressed. What it says is that if you’re faced with a very difficult life situation it is adaptive to become “depressed,” and that those who have that ability will, over time, leave more offspring than those who don’t. The genes that promote the “depression module” will then become more common in our species. The authors don’t address the question of whether such genes are fixed in the human species: that is, whether all of us have the ability to become depressed if we face life situations whose resolution requires depression.

____________

*Note that the conventional wisdom about depression is that it results from too little serotonin. That’s why the treatment of choice for depression is an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, such as Prozac), a drug that prevents free serotonin from being absorbed and re-used by neurons, allowing the neurotransmitter to linger in the brain.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Two years after a capuchin monkey apparently picked the locks on his cage to escape twice in two weeks, the zoo in Tupelo, Miss., is still selling T-shirts with his photograph and the legend "Oliver's Great Escape."

Oliver got out of his cage at the Buffalo Park & Zoo the first time on July 31, 2007. He was brought back six days later, but spent only a week behind bars before breaking loose again. That time, he was found in two days, and his cage was triple-locked.

Capuchin monkeys are a species of monkey native to South and Central America.

During his escapes, Oliver wandered around the Tupelo Country Club and raided residents' vegetable gardens for food.

Park owner Dan Franklin's wife, Sheila Franklin, said that wherever they go, people ask about Oliver.

Orangutans are with an ability to reason and think. This large, gentle red ape is one of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of the same DNA as humans. Indigenous peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia call this ape “Orang Hutan” literally translating into English as “People of the Forest.” In times past they would not kill them because they felt the orangutan was simply a person hiding in the trees, trying to avoid having to go to work or become a slave.

Orangutans are unique in the ape world. There are four kinds of great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans. Only the orangutan comes from Asia; the others all come from Africa. There are two separate species of orangutan – the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

The orangutan is the only strictly arboreal ape and is actually the largest tree living mammal in the world. The rest of the apes do climb and build sleeping nests in the trees, but are primarily terrestrial (spending their lives on the ground). Even the hair color of the orangutan, a bright reddish brown, is unique in the ape world.The orangutan has the most remarkable ability to travel through the forest treetops. They make their home in these trees and build nests each night out of leaves and branches in the very tops of the trees.

This is where they live and sleep – sometimes as much as 100 feet above the ground. The orangutan has little need to come down from the trees, as they are uniquely adapted for their arboreal lifestyle.

Orangutans have unique adaptations to their life in the treetops:feet designed much like hands for climbingflexible hips for holding on in any directionlong arms for reaching and long, strong hands and feet

Almost all of the food they eat grows in the treetops and the frequent rains fill the leaves thus supplying their drinking water. When water is difficult to get, they chew leaves to make a sponge to soak up water in tree cavities. When it rains very hard the orangutan makes an umbrella for himself out of big leaves. Many people are familiar with the studies that have shown chimpanzees using tools, such as termite-fishing sticks. Recent studies show that some populations of orangutans also fashion tools to aid in the difficult task of foraging for food.Some might say orangutans have four hands instead of two hands and two feet. This makes them graceful and agile while climbing through the trees but it makes walking on the ground somewhat slow and awkward. That is why the orangutan is at a great disadvantage on the ground, and why the orangutan rarely comes down from the treetops. Their food is there, their home is there and they are safer there.An orangutan’s lifespan is about 35-40 years in the wild, and sometimes into the 50’s in captivity. They reach puberty at about 8 years of age, but a female isn’t ready for her own baby until she’s in her teens.

The orangutan has the longest childhood dependence on the mother of any animal in the world, because there is so much for a young orangutan to learn in order to survive. The babies nurse until they are about six years of age. The young males may stay close by their mothers for a few more years but the females may stay until they are into their teens, allowing them to observe mothering skills as they watch their younger sibling being raised by the mother. Orangutan females only give birth about once every 8 years – the longest time between births of any mammal on earth. (This results in only 4 to 5 babies in her lifetime.) This is why orangutan populations are very slow to recover from disturbance.Food is often scarce in the rain forest and that is why the orangutan is a semi-solitary creature. In times of great abundance of food, orangutans may use the opportunity to socialize and gather in small groups.

Their diet is made up of bark, leaves, flowers, a variety of insects, and most importantly, over 300 kinds of fruit. The mothers must teach the babies what food to eat, where to find that food, in which trees and during which seasons. It is thought that the orangutan must have a very detailed map of the forest in her mind, and detailed knowledge of the fruiting cycles of many species of trees. (This prevents wasting valuable energy searching for fruit trees randomly, and traveling to a certain fruiting tree whose fruits will not ripen for some time). The babies must eventually know hundreds of species of plants and trees, which ones are edible, and how to process them; some are very difficult to eat because they are protected by sharp spines and shells.

Unique features of male orangutans compared with femalesCheekpads Large size (adult male in foreground, adult female in background)

Long, thick hair to make them appear even largerThroat sac, used to vocalize

The throat sac is used to make a very notable and recognizable call that echoes through the forest. This is called the “Long Call” and is used to locate and advertise their presence to females or warn other males away.

Travis, the chimpanzee which viciously attacked and "ripped off the face" of a woman, may have been on drugs at the time.

The owner of the domesticated animal, who was shot dead by police, claimed she had given Travis some Xanax just a few minutes before the attack in Connecticut that nearly killed her friend.

Sandra Herold (70) admitted to US news channel NBC that she had put Xanax in some tea she made for her pet because he was being rowdy. She later denied her earlier statement and said that the chimp had not been on drugs.

The animal started the horrific attack on Charla Nash (55) as she arrived at Sandra's house - biting off some of her fingers and tearing off her skin.

“He ripped her face off!” Sandra screamed to police over the phone. They shot the 14-year-old chimp dead when they arrived on the scene.

Xanax is used to prevent fear and unrest, but can sometimes cause the opposite affect in unstable people. The symptoms can often be exaggerated in apes, says Dr. Emil Coccaro, head of psychiatry at the Chicago Medical Center.

Herold has denied that she regularly gave the drug to her pet chimp, which she said “couldn't have been more like my son if I'd given birth to him”.

When Travis started attacking her friend, Sandra was forced to stab her “baby” with a kitchen knife, but the 90kg animal was too strong for her.

Nash was rushed to hospital and has since been operated on by teams of surgeons, including plastic and orthopaedic surgeons. She is still in a critical condition.

Received 5 May 2008; received in revised form 21 August 2008 and 21 September 2008; accepted 5 February 2009. published online 27 March 2009.Corrected Proof

Abstract

Whether precursors of the left-lateralization for human language can be found in the vocal and gestural communication systems of nonhuman primates remains a topic of intense research, particularly within theoretical discussions of the evolutionary origins of language. Although previous studies in chimpanzees have reported evidence of right-handedness for inter-species food-beg gestures produced exclusively toward humans, some might question the generality of these results to intra-species communicative signals. To address this issue, we recorded hand use in 70 captive chimpanzees for species-typical signals, that could be directed either toward conspecifics or humans. We found evidence of a predominance of right-handedness for species-typical gestures in captive chimpanzees when directed to both humans and conspecifics. Hand preferences during intra-species communication were significantly and positively correlated with gestures directed toward humans. By contrast, hand preferences for gestures did not significantly correlate with hand use for a non-communicative self-directed action. The collective results suggest (a) that evidence of predominance of right-handedness for human-directed gestures communication is not specific to this context and (b) the existence of a specific communicative system involving gestures constitutes an ideal prerequisite for the cerebral substrates of human language and its typical left-lateralization.

Many of the most dangerous species in Florida aren't in zoos or sanctuaries. They are in people's houses, at private animal attractions, or in once-rural settings now surrounded by housing developments. Use this database and map to see the 400 Florida businesses and residents holding permits for the wildest and most lethal species. Enter a category to narrow your search or search “all” to see the complete database.Source

Cheri Pierce of New York plays with 7-month-old Noah in Clearwater on Sunday. Pierce purchased a one-hour encounter from his owner, Gini Valbuena.

Cheri Pierce of North Greenbush, N.Y., prepares to meet 7-month-old Noah, held by Gini Valbuena, at Valbuena's Clearwater home Sunday.

Noah is happy to give Pierce a smooch. "Oh, I love you," Pierce told the chimp.

CLEARWATER - On Cheri Pierce's list of things to do before she dies: hold a chimpanzee.

So Pierce, who lives in New York, traveled to a home in Clearwater last week for her very own private chimp encounter.

Noah, a 7-month-old chimp, pulled her blond hair, swatted her cheek and kissed her on the mouth. Gini Valbuena, Noah's owner, hovered in the background.

Valbuena has owned and raised dozens of chimps and monkeys over the past four decades. She currently has three chimps at home. For 20 years, Valbuena cared for her menagerie with the money she made from running a photo studio out of her home.

But in August, she had gallbladder surgery and racked up $50,000 in medical bills - all without insurance.

Suddenly, she needs the chimps as much as they need her.

"I fully supported them for many years," Valbuena wrote in an e-mail. "Now we work together doing something they love. ... We've hit a bump in the road due to circumstances we could not foretell, but we'll steer around it together."

* * *

Her first monkey - a capuchin, the kind used by organ grinders - was a gift from her parents when she was 12 years old.

Valbuena can't explain why, but she connected with the monkey.

More followed: gibbons, chimpanzees, orangutans. She owned some of them, but also raised many for other people. She also has had several big cats, including a lion. Valbuena also married, had four children and divorced. To this day, her daughter picks up her kids' toys with her feet - like a chimp.

Back then, there were no laws against owning chimps or lions as pets. Today, by law, you can own them only if it involves a commercial use.

Valbuena took photos of regular folks but she also photographed the chimps in dresses and suits and sent them to greeting card companies.

A few years ago, her photo studio went under and she began offering chimp encounters for $100 an hour. She also takes her chimps to Naples for a few months each year for corporate events at a private preserve.

One of her chimps, 5-year-old Kenya, is over 40 pounds and is not allowed to participate in the encounters. Usually when her chimps reach sexual maturity, between ages 7 and 9, Valbuena sends them to an 82-acre farm she won't name somewhere in Florida.

She continues to raise them from afar.

In Florida, you can swim with dolphins, manatees and stingrays, pay to have a tiger cub climb your leg and touch a legless lizard named Jimmy Dean.

About 55 people and companies in Florida are licensed to exhibit chimps, which cost anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000. They include Busch Gardens in Tampa and Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Valbuena, who doesn't want to give her age but is in her 50s, is one of them. She's locked in a continuous battle with animal rights activists, who disapprove of private ownership of wild animals or using them for amusement.

Valbuena says chimps love the interaction and she loves them like children. She does not sell her older chimps to research centers, and figures anything that keeps the species going is a good thing.

In August, after her gallbladder was removed, Valbuena began advertising her chimp encounters more. "It is very enriching for the chimps as they become bored easily and we are always looking for ways to entertain them," she says.

But then she wonders. Her parents raised dozens of foster children.

"Sometimes I think about Mom and Dad raising all those foster babies all those years. All that time and attention, and I know there are all these children out there, and sometimes I feel guilty about giving it all to an animal, but these are just like my children. They are my family."

Valbuena sits on a stool as 3-year-old Kira, dressed in a Bugs Bunny diaper, clings to her. Dr. Darryl Heard, a University of Florida professor and zoological medicine specialist, gives Kira anesthesia.

"It's okay. Kisses. I know. Sorry," Valbuena coos, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

The chimps are her life. They eat five or six times a day and need round-the-clock care, like human infants. And now Kira needs a tooth extraction, at a cost of $500.

Valbuena knows of at least three chimps and four monkeys who have died under anesthesia.

Is she doing the right thing?

About 45 minutes later, the doctor calmly tells Valbuena the tooth came out, but there is something wrong with Kira's breathing.

Valbuena's chin quivers.

"There's so much happiness and joy in them and when one is the sick, it's the worst," she cries.

Before heading back to Clearwater, Valbuena sits in her Dodge Caravan in the parking lot and slides Kira into a toddler-size pink one-piece with white eyelet trim along the back.

"Put your jammies on, darling," Valbuena says. "Mommy's so sorry you had to go through that."

All is well.

Behind Valbuena's home on a deck with two large cages, Pierce arrives to play with Kira. Valbuena makes the New York woman wash her hands with a disinfectant first.

Heard, the UF animal doctor, says chimps and people can give diseases to each other. Valbuena, however, says her animals have all their shots and have been checked for diseases. She's more worried about people giving the animals diseases.

Pierce has gifts for the chimps, a xylophone and a pair of maracas. Kira quickly breaks the xylophone's mallet in two and hides one of the maracas in the crook of her leg.

Then she leaps into Pierce's arms and gives her a big hug.

"Oh, I love you," says Pierce, her blue eyes fixed on the chimp's craggy face. "Want to come home with me?"

Kira and Pierce kiss, then Kira does a somersault.

"I don't know how you do it," Pierce tells Valbuena. "I'd play with them all day."

The chimp smiles, revealing a gap in her front teeth. Then she looks around for Valbuena, who's standing off to the side, monitoring the encounter.

To our ex-Chimpanzees

To Louie we love you and may God Bless your soul.To Mikey we love you and hope you will always be happy and healthy.

Search This Blog

Help Save Our Citizens and Our Chimpanzees

Call your state representative, tell them to Ban Chimpanzees in your state!

January's Article

From the Fall of 2008 Through 2009 – The Chimpanzee Year in Review

This past year has been one of sadness, sorrow, change, and hope. I would like to take this opportunity, as we begin 2010, to reflect back and highlight the changes that we now, hopefully, are really beginning to see as the world’s attitude towards privately owned chimpanzees, and primates in general, change in a positive way.

The highlights begin, actually, late in the fall of 2008 when our chimps, Mikey and Louie, the two busiest and most popular working chimpanzees in America, retired to Little Rock Zoo. I wanted them to have a future as part of a family of chimps, and to have a safe and permanent home that they could live their life as chimpanzees, not a member of the human society.

In November of 2009, Connor and Kramer the chimpanzees owned by private pet owner Jeanne Rizzotto escape from her home near Red Lodge, Montana. They spent over an hour running loose, crossing highways and entering neighbor’s property. Connor, a habitual biter as described in court papers filed after the incident, bites a woman on the arm as she tries to keep him out of her home, losing 6-8 inches of skin from her arm. Rizzotto is told to keep the chimps in quarantine at her home while health officials investigate the incident. Rizzotto claims the chimps were let out by a vandal that had cut a lock, however that remains unproven. All of these articles have been posted on this Simian Library.

In February, 2009, tragedy strikes, and the world’s attention turns to the issue of private ownership of chimpanzees. On a cold afternoon in Stamford Connecticut, Travis the Chimpanzee attacks a long time friend of owner Sandra Herold named Charla Nash in Herold’s driveway. Travis is shot and killed by a patrol officer as the 14 year old, 200 pound male chimpanzee; tries to pry open the door of his patrol car as he responded to the tragedy. Nash is rushed to the hospital, and remains in a coma for months.

Weeks later, in early March, the US House of Representatives passes the Captive Primate Safety Act, banning sales of all primates across state lines. The bill moves on to the senate, where it still sits, not being acted on, to this day.

In late November, 2008, neighbors turned in a couple in Houston, Texas for a chimpanzee living in a garage in a suburban neighborhood. Fred Henry, now known simply as Henry, was over fifteen years old and had been living in the garage in a cage for 15 years. Weighing only 65 pounds, about 100 pounds underweight, the emaciated chimp is taken to the local SPCA where veterinarians and animal officials nurse him back to health. On Feb 23, 2009, Henry is moved to Chimp Haven in Shreveport, LA to live out the rest of his life with other chimps in a safe and enriching environment.

Later in March, a chimpanzee named Timmy escapes from his owners’ home in rural Missouri. The owner, Mary Overton, was a former director of The Simian Society of America, a group that promotes and encourages private primate ownership. Timmy is shot and killed by a police officer as he attempts to pry open the door to the officer’s patrol car. Investigators charge all residents of the home with animal cruelty, as they find a “puppy mill” on the premises, with dead dog carcasses scattered throughout the property and over a hundred sick and undernourished animals, including several monkeys.

On March 4, 2009 Nightline on ABC airs over fifteen minutes of footage taken by a HSUS undercover worker at the University Of Louisiana Lafayette National Primate Research Center. The video shows acts of cruelty and inhumane treatment of chimpanzees, including scores of baby chimpanzees in a holding cell with no enrichment or even a blanket. The video brings new awareness to the plight of research chimpanzees, and turns up the pressure on the labs. A follow up investigation by the USDA, following the issuance of a 108 page complaint by the HSUS against the lab, reinforces the findings of the video taken.

Carole Noon, founder and director of Save the Chimps in New Mexico and Fort Pierce Florida passes away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 59. Noon, perhaps the world’s most famous chimpanzee advocate, founded Save the Chimps in 1997. She led the purchase of the former troubled Coulston Foundation research facility near Almagordo, New Mexico in order to rescue over 250 chimpanzees that had been used by the government for research, mostly from the space program in the 60’s and 70’s. The chimpanzees in her care, now numbering over 270, were being moved from New Mexico to the Florida facility, hailed as the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in the world. Noon left a legacy of care, compassion, and love for the species that will never be duplicated. The chimpanzee community misses her dearly.

In June, a news story from a Tampa Florida television station airs a story about a baby chimpanzee now residing at Big Cat Habitat in Sarasota, Florida, home of the Rosaire family of circus trainers. The chimpanzee, named Eli, was supposedly rejected at birth by his mother and is being raised by Kay Rosaire and Gini Valbuena. Valbuena, a long time buyer of baby chimpanzees that once described herself as being “addicted to chimpanzees”, is advertised in the news story as the chimps’ “full time nanny”.

On December 10, 2009 Tom, a 44 year old chimpanzee that lived the last 14 years at the wonderful Fauna Foundation in Canada, passed away. Tom had been a research chimpanzee for the first thirty years of his life, languishing in a five foot by five foot by seven foot high stainless steel cage. He was the victim of countless laboratory tests, biopsies, injections, and suffering. Tom was the face of Project R&R, aimed at releasing all chimpanzees from biomedical and invasive research, and the driving force behind the Great Ape Protection Act now before Congress. There are still 1400 chimpanzees used in biomedical research in the United States today.

On December 17th, 2009, ten more chimpanzees arrived in Fort Pierce Florida as part of the Great Chimp Migration continues. Save the Chimps, the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in the world, transfers ten chimps at a time to the islands in the Florida facility as funds allow. An anonymous donor gave the $25,000 for this trip, and the Arcus Foundation has agreed to match all funds donated to Save the Chimps up until April of 2010. Start your year right – and donate to the Great Chimp Migration today!